HF 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Class 
 
15he 
 
 Pedagogy of 
 Co mme rcial 
 Branches 
 
The Pedagogy of 
 Commercial Branches 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED BY J. A. LYONS, AT PEORIA, ILLI- 
 NOIS, ON JULY 8, 1902T*O^N THE OCCASION 
 OF THE ANNUAL INSTITUTE OF 
 THE FACULTIES OF BROWN'S 
 BUSINESS COLLEGES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 or 
 
 PUBLISHED BY AND DISTRIBUTED WITH THE COMPLIMENTS OF 
 POWERS & LYONS 
 
 Publishers of Commercial Text Books 
 CHICAGO NEW YORK SAN FRANCISCO 
 
GENERAL 
 
V-- ' 
 
 OF THE ' A 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 The Pedagogy of Commercial 
 Branches. 
 
 A school is in a sense a mental gymnasium. The 
 teacher is simply the director. As in a physical 
 gymnasium the pupil, not the director,, must do 
 the work; so in the school if the pupil is to acquire 
 mental power he must do the thinking. That 
 teacher is most successful who himself does the 
 least but gets his pupils to do the most. Beyond 
 communicating mere conventional matter and per- 
 haps indicating sources of information, the less 
 telling or the less doing the teacher does for the 
 pupil the better. The pupil must learn to work 
 out his own salvation. The teacher should aim to 
 have him reach the point of independence at the 
 earliest possible moment. It is nothing less than 
 cruel to teach the pupil to rely on the teacher at 
 every turn during school days and at the end 
 thereof throw him unsupported on to a cold busi- 
 ness world. The supporting hand should be ex- 
 tended just before discouragement begins, not 
 before. 
 
 3 
 
 187997 
 
It is a law of the universe that faculties of what- 
 ever kind grow by exercise and exercise involves 
 repetition. Eepetition of action leads to habits. 
 Eepetition of impression leads to clearness and 
 definiteness of thought and to permanence of recol- 
 lection. 
 
 The mind consists of faculties. These faculties 
 gain power and develop by proper exercise. As no 
 physical exercise will develop all the muscles, but 
 only those called into action, so no mental exer- 
 cise will develop all faculties. The educated man 
 is the one whose various faculties are strong and 
 developed into a symmetrical whole. The black- 
 smith may develop an arm, shoulder, and breast 
 of superior strength while his legs and back may 
 remain comparatively puny. Such a man may only 
 be considered strong when he can bring into use 
 the particular muscles he has developed. This 
 will be of advantage to him to the extent that he 
 may find occasions to use these muscles. A certain 
 set of faculties may be made strong in the same 
 manner. The modern theory of education is to de- 
 velop the entire mind symmetrically. Greater sta- 
 bility and equipoise are thus gained beside giving 
 the subject greater capacity for enjoyment. The 
 power of placing proper values on all things coming 
 
within the range of his observation is one of the 
 best marks of a well balanced mind. As none of 
 us have such a mind we are all guilty of frequent 
 violations of the first axiom of mathematics the 
 whole is greater than any of its parts. The mind 
 unsymmetrical either by endowment or attainment 
 is unable by assigning proper value to each con- 
 dition or subject, to co-ordinate those things that 
 should be co-ordinated and to subordinate those 
 things that should be subordinated. In our own 
 work how often do we find a school principal select- 
 ing one subject from the course and requiring that 
 the time of the pupil be devoted to it to the sacri- 
 fice of time that should be devoted to other sub- 
 jects. In some schools the importance of book- 
 keeping is seemingly magnified to undue propor- 
 tions. In some cases it is one subject and in others 
 another. In some ways this works for good. It 
 is probably responsible for specialization, but in the 
 majority of the affairs of life it undoubtedly is the 
 cause of most of our woes. 
 
 The mind is a manifestation of the nervous sys- 
 tem. There are five means by which the mind re- 
 ceives impressions from the outside world. Thus, 
 I set an apple before you, you look upon it and 
 you find it is red and round; you taste it and you 
 5 
 
say it is sweet; you feel it and say it is smooth and 
 hard; you place it to your nose and you say it is 
 fragrant; you snap it with your finger and it gives 
 forth a sound. You are now ready to form a con- 
 clusion in reference to this object. No message 
 from the outside world was ever conveyed to a 
 human mind in any other way than through one 
 of these channels, the five senses. Let us for the 
 moment turn our attention to the nervous system. 
 Perhaps a study of its workings may give us some 
 clews that will be helpful to us in arriving at a 
 better understanding of the very thing with which 
 we, as teachers, have to do. The simplest nerve is 
 a single telegraph wire the outward end of which 
 is capable of receiving a message from without and 
 forwarding it to a central office within where a 
 record is made of it. The central office is a nerve 
 ganglion. 
 
 The next system in order is this same simple 
 nerve leading to a ganglion out of which ganglion 
 leads another nerve back to the same general region 
 from which came the message. Here you have the 
 circuit completed. The first nerve is the sensory 
 branch carrying impressions, sensations to the 
 recording office, the ganglion. The second nerve 
 is the motor branch, conveying orders from the 
 6 
 
central office to its subordinates, the muscles. Let 
 us further illustrate the action of the circuit. You 
 place your finger accidentally on a hot stove. Like 
 a flash of lightning the impression is conveyed to 
 the spinal cord and immediately it sends a message 
 down the mortor branch to the muscles to with- 
 draw the hand from danger and it is done. The 
 next complication in the system is the addition of 
 a storage ganglion or ganglion of influence and the 
 circuit takes on this appearance. These ganglia are 
 composed of material apparently designed to re- 
 ceive and retain impressions. Passing still higher 
 in the scale of development we find these ganglia 
 doubled in number and the circuit might be rep- 
 resented as follows: (Illustration omitted.) 
 
 The spinal cord and brain are typical of these two 
 ganglia. It is thought that in this the highest 
 type of nervous development can we account for 
 the consciousness of time. By storage ganglia is 
 an animal enabled to connect the present with the 
 past and thus make use of all its experiences. The 
 lowest orders of insects have no such ganglia and 
 hence have only instinct to guide them. This is 
 the highest type of the nerve circuit. Each sen- 
 sation sent down a sensory nerve leaves its im- 
 pression in the ganglion. It is, therefore, the re- 
 7 
 
pository of the sensations of a lifetime. It is be- 
 lieved that each sensation works a certain peculiar 
 physical chemical or molecular change in the gan- 
 glion that never leaves it and that the impression 
 or sensation may he revived, constituting what we 
 call Memory. Each repetition of the sensation 
 only deepens the impression. Thus we account 
 for the development of memory. Two or more 
 sensations may have heen always conveyed to the 
 brain or storage ganglion concurrently or nearly 
 so. Now present one of these only and it will 
 at once throw that ganglion into a condition that 
 will not only call to mind the image or sensation 
 now before it, but its mate as well which is not 
 present. Here we account for what is called the 
 law of association, recognized by all teachers as so 
 large a factor in training the pupiPs mind and es- 
 pecially in enabling him to recall impressions. 
 
 Thoughts do not spring spontaneously in the 
 mind of any one. They each in turn take the cen- 
 ter of the stage, occupy the attention and pass 
 from sight. All this is in accordance with a law 
 or a series of laws. In this operation the law of 
 association plays an important part. No man 
 since the beginning of time has thought an original 
 thought. Each thought is the result of his pre- 
 8 
 
vious experience and of his present external stimu- 
 lus. We are simply combining facts and principles 
 in all possible different ways. The reason I do not 
 think exactly as you do, is because I have not had 
 your experience nor am I subjected to your precise 
 external stimulus. There are certain phases of 
 what we call the general law of association, that we 
 may do well to consider. 
 
 1. Whenever one element of a previous experi- 
 ence springs into consciousness it tends to recall 
 the entire experience. Or as Mill puts it: "When- 
 ever any state of consciousness has once been ex- 
 cited in us, an inferior degree of the same state 
 resembling the former but inferior in intensity is 
 capable of being reproduced in us/' 
 
 2. In selecting the next idea for attention from 
 among a number in the same group the mind will 
 choose the idea habitually connected with the one 
 present. This is the law of habit. You have 
 noticed for instance that the pupil learning the 
 multiplication table if asked, "What is 8x7?" may 
 be unable to state, but to determine will begin 2x7, 
 3x7 and so on, passing 8x7 without hesitation. He 
 is simply making the law of association do for him 
 what unaided memory refuses to do. 
 
3. Again,, of two or more ideas presented for 
 attention, the mind will select the one most re- 
 cently associated with the present one rather than 
 one remotely associated. The law of recency. Let 
 us see if you have recognized the reasons for a 
 certain advice you have probably given time and 
 again. A pupil enters your school. He desires to 
 take both the shorthand and the business courses. 
 If it is a question which he shall take first do 
 you not always advise him to begin with the busi- 
 ness course and end with shorthand? Why? Be- 
 cause, bookkeeping and the other commercial 
 branches are more a matter of the understanding 
 and less a matter of memory and of manual dex- 
 terity than shorthand. The law of recency plays 
 an important part in the practice of shorthand, but 
 not so large a part in bookkeeping. 
 
 4. Of two or more ideas presented for the at- 
 tention the mind will select that one most vividly 
 associated with the present one. A much larger 
 use of this law can be made than I believe is made 
 by teachers generally. If you have some fact or 
 some principle that you particularly wish to im- 
 press upon the pupil, link it with an anecdote or 
 with some illustration that you know will appeal 
 to that pupil and it will become fixed in his mind 
 
 10 
 
as nothing else would fix it, but of this we shall 
 speak more at length later. 
 
 John W. Draper tells of an experiment that will 
 illustrate the force of impressions. Take a key, 
 place it on a sheet of cold polished metal and then 
 breathe upon it. When the moisture has had time 
 to disappear throw off the key. If now you breathe 
 upon the metal again a picture of the key will come 
 forth on it. It is said that this experiment may 
 be repeated months afterwards, if the face of the 
 metal be kept free from abrasion. These impres- 
 sions it is known are retained for months. What 
 then must be the effect of impressions made on a 
 substance particularly constructed for the retention 
 of impressions? It is believed that a shadow never 
 falls upon the wall without leaving thereon its 
 permanent imprint, and that the time will come 
 when the art of photography will be so well under- 
 stood that these impressions may be reproduced. 
 
 It is well for teachers to recognize the indisput- 
 able fact that each sense has its own special mem- 
 ory, indeed, from the above statement of the phil- 
 osophy of memory there is no special ganglion for 
 registering all impressions, but each of the five 
 senses must have its own particular registering 
 ganglion. One's sight memory may be good and 
 11 
 
his sound memory poor and vice versa. You all 
 know how retentive is the blind man's memory of 
 distances, locality and of touch. This is the result 
 of discipline. Other branches of memory 
 can undoubtedly be cultivated by proper discipline. 
 The fact remains that because the memory of one 
 sense is retentive it is no sign that one's memory 
 as a whole is retentive. Eeading is an exercise in- 
 volving sight memory. Spelling may be an exer- 
 cise of either sight memory, or sound memory, ac- 
 cording to the manner of its study or it may be 
 an exercise of both. The more avenues or senses 
 through which you can have a pupil receive im- 
 pressions of a given thing the deeper, the more 
 perfect and the more reliable will be the resultant 
 impression. Thus your knowledge of an orange 
 would be very imperfect if you had only seen one, 
 but had neither touched nor tasted it. 
 
 It must be very clear to even the casual observer 
 of psychological phenomena that there is an inti- 
 mate relation between thought and action. It 
 seems to be a law of our natures to give an ex- 
 pression of each and every idea by means of its 
 appropriate action. Let the idea of going some- 
 where wholly engross the mind and immediately 
 there is an almost irresistible impulse to put that 
 12 
 
idea into action by going. This impulse will be 
 strong to the extent that the idea engrosses the 
 mind in proportion to its intensity. It is well that 
 this relation exists for if all actions were the result 
 of will power it would require greater effort, would 
 cause greater fatigue, and we would gain no facility 
 with practice. 
 
 Subconscious efforts or what we sometimes call 
 automatic movements are undoubtedly the most 
 accurate and less fatiguing. It should be noticed 
 further that this relation is not wholly intuition 
 but may be made by cultivation to extend itself 
 to what may be termed artificial or conventional 
 forms of expression. Thus in shorthand a certain 
 sign or outline is conventionally designated as the 
 symbol of a word or phrase. Naturally,, there is 
 no inherent impulse to write that character when 
 thinking of the word, but by repeating the action 
 of writing the character when thinking of the 
 word an impulse is finally created that links the 
 action of writing with the thought of the word, so 
 that one follows the other quickly, accurately, and 
 finally automatically. It should only require men- 
 tion of the two terms, speed and accuracy, to at- 
 tract the attention of commercial teachers. Any- 
 thing that conduces to these should have their at- 
 13 
 
tention. It is right here that I helieve we get at 
 the very root of this question. A study of the laws 
 governing the relation of thought and action will 
 give us the correct conception of the difficulties en- 
 countered hy the pupil and this in turn will sug- 
 gest to us proper methods for overcoming them. 
 Our work is almost wholly mauual training in its 
 character. It involves both knowing and doing. 
 In shorthand, typewriting and writing the manual 
 idea is especially prominent. A moment's thought 
 should now convince any one that the correct form 
 or stroke, as the case may be, is the first consider- 
 ation. There should be no false movements, for 
 you are cultivating a habit of movement and the 
 straightest route to the destination lies in the repe- 
 tition of the correct movement. False movements 
 or forms are not alone a waste of time and energy, 
 but they are worse each one leaves its imprint 
 in the nervous tissue and itself becomes the basis 
 of a habit that will tend to confusion. To secure 
 speed there must be no wavering as between two 
 acts, for then selection must be made and we take 
 the act out of the realm of subconsciousness and 
 place it under the control of the will. This is 
 death to speed. Probably no part of the rnind re- 
 quires more time for action than judgment. The 
 14 
 
very term itself implies deliberation. Could the 
 accomplished pianist maintain time if she must 
 needs think in each case of the key she is to strike ? 
 This principle is all there is to touch typewriting. 
 The sight method was largely a question of con- 
 scious selection of keys; the touch method throws 
 it out of the realm of the conscious into that of the 
 unconscious. There is no hesitation to give judg- 
 ment time to act, but with an assurance born of 
 familiarity the finger moves with accuracy to the 
 proper key the moment the thought of the letter 
 enters the mind. Bear in mind there must be no 
 rival thoughts in the mind, each struggling for 
 attention or both speed and accuracy of action are 
 lost. 
 
 While speaking of touch typewriting, it might 
 be well to state another reason not psychological 
 why it is speedier. By the old sight method it was 
 necessary to draw the hand out of the line of vision 
 that the eye might see where the hand should 
 strike next. This necessitated a long stroke which 
 took time and effort. By the touch method this 
 is unnecessary and the hands may hover closely 
 over the board. This position permits of the 
 shortest possible stroke, hence a saving of both 
 time and effort. 
 
 15 
 
There are perhaps no subjects taught in schools 
 that contain more matter that is merely conven- 
 tional than is to be found in our particular courses. 
 It is obvious that conventional matter must be 
 communicated by the teacher to the pupil but 
 aside from this the less telling the teacher does 
 the better. Direct your pupils to original sources 
 of information that they themselves may discover 
 the facts that will lead them to form their own 
 conclusions. In practical value one set of facts 
 discovered by the pupil himself and a correct the- 
 ory deducted from them is worth a hundred sets of 
 facts communicated to the pupil by the teacher. 
 
 Knowledge is of two kinds, that which we know 
 through our own experience and what we know 
 through the experience of others. That which 
 is a part of our own experience has made an im- 
 print on our minds and is therefore a part of us. 
 What is conveyed to us by another lacks the vivid- 
 ness, the clearness, and the definiteness of know- 
 ledge gained at first hand. It is only our own 
 when we have ourselves gone over the processes 
 of reasoning that satisfies the mind of its correct- 
 ness and validity. That teaching is best and most 
 in accord with our theory which relies less on 
 memory and more on reason and on true under- 
 16 
 
standing. Let me illustrate this and you will 
 pardon me if I take an illustration from my own 
 experience. Aside from the rules governing the 
 solution of problems growing out of the relations 
 of the sides of a right angle triangle and the value 
 of pi, I do not believe that I know a single rule 
 of mensuration, yet I can solve its problems readily 
 and accurately. Suppose the problem be: Given 
 the diameter of a circle to find its circumference. 
 Draw a circle and around it draw a square, making 
 its sides tangent to the circle. It is evident that a 
 side of the square is the diameter of the circle. 
 The perimeter of the square is four times the di- 
 ameter. The perimeter of the circle is slightly less. 
 This suggests the fact that the circumference of 
 the circle is pi times the diameter. In like manner 
 all similar problems can be solved by the aid of 
 reason rather than by memory. The ability to do 
 this would seem to be the more desirable if for no 
 other reason than on account of the greater relia- 
 bility of the faculties involved over that of mem- 
 ory. 
 
 Take the law of falling bodies. Kemember but 
 
 the simple fact that a body will fall 16 feet the 
 
 first second, by a chain of reasoning let us work 
 
 out the law. Its velocity at the beginning was 0. 
 
 17 
 
It fell 16 feet, that must have been its average rate 
 for the second, consequently its velocity must have 
 been 32 at the end of the first second or the be- 
 ginning of the second second. If it gained no 
 speed in the second second it would fall 32 feet, 
 but gravity acts the same as in the first second and 
 pulls it 16 feet more or 48 feet in the second second. 
 It started at the rate of 32 feet and fell 48 feet, 
 it must have closed the second at the rate of 64 
 feet. 
 
 The point I wish to make and the advice I wish 
 to give is, throw as much as possible onto the un- 
 derstanding of the pupil and less on to the memory. 
 In doing this I do not wish to be understood as 
 disparaging the value of memory. On the contrary, 
 I feel that its proper cultivation does not receive 
 the attention it should. I find office help woefully 
 deficient in it, but it should be relieved from the 
 burden of those things that do not belong to it 
 and thereby give place to those things that do 
 belong to it. 
 
 Bear constantly in mind that the particular 
 thing required of a pupil in school is not of itself 
 an end, but a means. That the ultimate end of all 
 instruction is to teach the pupil to think and to do. 
 
 Knowledge is not power. The ability to think 
 18 
 
and to do is power. The power to think and the 
 power to do are the two things that are called into 
 use with the greatest frequency. They are the only 
 powers that can meet unusual conditions or the 
 emergency of the moment. Facts are too numerous 
 for any mind to form into an organized whole or to 
 keep tabbed ready for instant use each in its proper 
 place. The possession of the power to think dis- 
 penses with the necessity for the retention of so 
 many facts. Knowledge may vanish., but the power 
 to think will remain as long as the mind itself re- 
 mains. The gist, the aim, the rule of all our in- 
 struction should be to teach our pupils to think and 
 to do. Square all your plans of recitation and of 
 study by the rule of thought, in teaching the sci- 
 ence of a subject and by the rule of action in teach- 
 ing an art, and in your teaching you will not go 
 far wrong. Teach your pupils how to think, show 
 them the sources of information and teach them 
 how to use those things with which they will have 
 to do and you have done more for them than you 
 could possibly have done by cramming their minds 
 with a thousand facts useful though they may be. 
 In no vocation is it of more importance that the 
 follower be able to think and to do than in busi- 
 ness. 
 
 19 
 
It so happens that several of the subjects consti- 
 tuting our courses are more largely Art than Sci- 
 ence, thus making double c^use for action. When 
 Philip of Macedon presented his son to Aristotle 
 for a pupil, he said, "See that you make yourself 
 useless to my son." Early as this was in the study 
 of education it shows that Philip at least had the 
 true conception of the function of a teacher. 
 
 In two of the subjects we teach: Shorthand and 
 Bookkeeping, we have first the science, next the 
 art and finally the manual dexterity. The dis- 
 tinction between the art and the manual dexterity 
 may to your mind seem far fetched. No such dis- 
 tinction may exist as a matter of kind, but as a mat- 
 ter of degree it does exist. In the study of the 
 science we must first have information, facts, know- 
 ledge, from which we can induce proper rules or 
 laws. Thus knowledge is at the foundation of the 
 study of all science. It cannot be dispensed with, 
 but yet it is not the important thing in science any 
 more than a stone in the foundation is the im- 
 portant element because it supports the super- 
 structure. The superstructure is the important 
 part of the house because it is the end for which 
 the foundation exists. It is in the study of the 
 science that you can best teach your pupils to 
 20 
 
think and here it is that they should be gradually 
 thrown upon their own resources at as early a date 
 as possible. The mental processes that are called 
 into most frequent use in the business world are 
 observing, reasoning, remembering and judging. 
 The faculties governing these can all be materially 
 strengthened by proper methods of study while 
 pursuing our courses. In bookkeeping and short- 
 hand it is true these are not the important ends to 
 be attained, because they are not the ultimate ends 
 of study, but they are incidental ends of no mean 
 value. 
 
 In the study of bookkeeping and shorthand the 
 ultimate object is the manual dexterity. It is the 
 ability to do intelligently. ISTot only the ability 
 to do but the ability to do quickly and accurately. 
 As we have already observed, there is an intimate 
 relation between thought and action. Clear think- 
 ing must always precede intelligent accurate doing. 
 Have you not yourself often so clearly perceived 
 a process that though you had never attempted the 
 act you felt confident you could perform it accu- 
 rately? The clearer you are as to how a thing 
 should be done the more apt you are to do it accu- 
 rately. The cultivation of the thinking power 
 strengthens the doing power and conversely the 
 21 
 
strengthening of the doing power strengthens the 
 thinking power. 
 
 Through all manual training we do then re- 
 ceive a certain mental discipline that is valuable. 
 One of the most valuable disciplines afforded in 
 our courses is from the continuity that is absolutely 
 necessary first in acquiring a knowledge of the 
 science of the subjects and later in acquiring the 
 necessary manual dexterity. This is a discipline 
 that seems to me is sadly wanting in the modern 
 common and high school courses. We confine the 
 pupil to the study of but few subjects per day, and 
 to these he must apply himself with great earnest- 
 ness. He gets from our courses for the first time 
 that power of tenactity of purpose that will be in- 
 valuable to him throughout life, no matter what 
 his vocation may be. 
 
 Hume says every mental impression has its idea. 
 Similar ideas tend to excite one another. Impres- 
 sion begets expression. Expression tends to clear- 
 ness and definiteness. So one assists and either 
 creates or intensifies the other. In this law we can 
 readily see that man was endowed by Providence 
 with the power of speech not alone for his own 
 selfish use and gratification but for that of his 
 fellow man as well. The power of expression is 
 
important then for its retroactive effect. A pupil 
 may have the correct conception of a rule or prin- 
 ciple but he makes sharper and clearer its bound- 
 ary lines when he gives outward expression to his 
 idea. Other things being equal the pupil that ex- 
 presses himself most clearly on a given subject has 
 the most complete and accurate ideas concerning it. 
 It has been often and well said that all men are 
 eloquent on those subjects with which they are 
 perfectly familiar. Eecitations should as far as 
 possible be so conducted that the pupil will be 
 obliged to express his ideas in complete and con- 
 nected sentences rather than to answer questions in 
 monosyllables. In his search for words he will 
 endeavor to select those that most aptly and clearly 
 represent his ideas and in this search a new phase 
 or differentiation of the subject will often occur to 
 him. Herein also lies one of the values of learning 
 correct definitions. They both tend to accuracy 
 of statement as well as of thought. You may 
 often hear a pupil say he knows a certain thing 
 but he cannot tell it. If he knows anything of it 
 he knows it imperfectly. His ideas of it are far 
 from clear. If the subject be a new one to him 
 he may not be familiar with its technical nomen- 
 clature but he has a language of his own with 
 23 
 
which to express whatever clear ideas he has. 
 
 The pupil who places a demonstration on the 
 board gets much discipline from his explanation 
 of it. In his attempts to make it clear to his fel- 
 low pupils he makes it clearer to himself. For this 
 same reason you probably learned more the first 
 year you taught than you learned in any of your 
 student years. 
 
 Looseness and inaccuracy in the use of words 
 leads to indefiniteness and lack of clearness in 
 thought. As we are more precise and discriminat- 
 ing in the use of written language than in oral 
 discourse,, I am coming more and more to value 
 composition in some form as a disciplinary agent. 
 In letter writing we are overlooking an oppor- 
 tunity that lies close to hand and that should 
 appeal to us not only for its own intrinsic worth 
 but for its incidental value in getting language 
 power and ultimately thought power. 
 
 "We teach individually" sounds well in a col- 
 lege catalogue or when talking to the layman, but 
 there is no greater nor more pernicious heresy 
 than it. 
 
 The acquisition of knowledge gained in the 
 natural manner is pleasing because it is in exact 
 accordance with the laws of nature which do not 
 24 
 
conflict but are in perfect harmony. If you see 
 therefore that your pupils find a study distasteful 
 lay the fault rather to the time or method of pre- 
 sentation than to the pupil. Your investigation 
 to discover the fault should be subjective rather 
 than objective. 
 
 You know how perfectly natural and pleasing 
 it is to the child to exercise its muscles. It is 
 just as natural and invigorating for it to exercise 
 its mental faculties. The young child's life is 
 made up of first doing and later of observing, 
 thinking and doing in all of which he takes intense 
 delight and through which he develops all his 
 powers both mental and physical. 
 
 The comparison may be carried still further. As 
 a proper exercise of the physical being invigorates 
 and stimulates the members for further activity 
 so a proper exercise of the mental powers creates 
 a desire for further exercise. 
 
 A listless, unintelligent pupil is the best indi- 
 cation of improper methods of presentation. The 
 attention and interest manifested by the class is a 
 reliable and accurate barometer of the propriety 
 of the methods used. 
 
 In the development of a subject it is a safe rule 
 never to present to the pupil but one new thing 
 25 
 
at a time. Text books are often venial offenders 
 in this regard, and hurl new principles at the pupil 
 in groups. This is unpsychological and therefore 
 unpedagogical. The result is confusion of 
 thought which it will take time and effort to over- 
 come. Bring each point out clearly and distinctly 
 and for the time being make it the matter of 
 prime importance. 
 
 For this reason I have always favored the use of 
 the outline. It makes the subject graphic, con- 
 cretes it, enables the eye to join with the other 
 senses in conveying the right sort of picture to the 
 brain. An outline well constructed and properly 
 displayed by the teacher for the use of the pupil is 
 good, often the best that can be done under the 
 circumstances, but when possible it is better to 
 have the pupil construct his own outlines and sub- 
 mit them for the inspection of the teacher. Such 
 work is truly educational. It teaches the pupil to be 
 constructive-creative, to co-ordinate and co-relate 
 the different important facts and principles giving 
 to each the value belonging to it. The mere time 
 it will take to construct and arrange the outline 
 is well spent, for during all that time the mind is 
 held continually to the one thing. There is no 
 opportunity here for the elimination of intermedi- 
 26 
 
ate syllogisms and the reaching of simply general 
 conclusions without the result being shown in the 
 outline. An outline teaches order, symmetry, pro- 
 portion, and cultivates the judgment and reasoning 
 faculties. It makes the subject graphic and en- 
 ables the pupil to intensify the impression by re- 
 ceiving a new one through the eye. 
 
 Unfortunately but few of the subjects we teach 
 lend themselves well to the best use of the outline 
 and even in those subjects we are apt to be so 
 driven for time -in which to throw in the necessary 
 information, that we cannot tarry to give that in- 
 formation in the manner calculated to give the 
 pupil at the same time the best mental discipline. 
 
 A desire to know, to do and to feel things is an 
 inherent quality of every healthy mind. It is at the 
 basis of the development of the mind. If the 
 desire were not to a greater or less degree inherent 
 the child of seven would know but little more 
 than the babe of one. Most of the knowledge 
 gained in this period is gained because it was 
 sought, not because it was thrust upon it. To 
 know the why and the wherefore is almost as 
 elemental. 
 
 You better sustain the interest when your pupils 
 are made to understand the reasons for requiring 
 27 
 
certain things of them. They should always know 
 not only what they are doing but why. Take your 
 pupils into your confidence not for the sake of the 
 confidence but that their work may be more intelli- 
 gently done and therefore more willingly done. 
 
 Now just one more point of a general nature and 
 I am done. It has often been said that we are all 
 but boys and girls grown tall, that we all love an 
 anecdote. This may be because we all possess that 
 human interest and sympathy which binds us to- 
 gether, or it may be because we are all impressed 
 with that which is startling and ludicrous, but 
 whatever it is we possess it in common and the 
 relating of an anecdote will never fail to attract 
 the attention of the class. 
 
 Good teaching depends upon attention and at- 
 tention depends upon interest. Interest can al- 
 ways be secured by an anecdote. Do we as teach- 
 ers make as much use of the anecdote as we could? 
 In the study of Commercial Law is a fine oppor- 
 tunity for the teacher in this regard. By connect- 
 ing a truth or a principle with anything that is 
 startling or that claims the attention you make 
 a deep impression and by the association you en- 
 able him easily to recall it. The securing of inter- 
 est depends on the teacher's ability to connect the 
 
subject he is teaching with something interesting 
 already in the mind of the pupil. Therefore to \ 
 arouse interest is to know what is already in the ] 
 pupil's mind that is interesting to him and so 
 make the new work branch out from this as a 
 center. 
 
 Herein lies the true inwardness of securing at- 
 tention. As a true teacher you have no right to 
 demand interest, indeed, it cannot be commanded 
 for long and even then the benefits derived from 
 it are of doubtful value. Bring the subject down 
 to a level where the pupil can understand and ap- 
 preciate it, but where it will keep him on tip toe 
 to fully reach it. Those of you who have studied 
 human nature know that if the object of a particu- 
 lar study is not apparent to the pupil it has no 
 interest for him. This is the reason for so gen- 
 eral a lack of interest in language work and at the 
 same time an explanation for the verv general in- 
 terest that exists among boys in the study of book- 
 keeping. You do not have to lie awake nights to 
 devise plans for presenting bookkeeping that will 
 prove interesting. Its object is already clear. It 
 appeals to the sense of profit which is more or less 
 lively in all pupils. It is easy for every boy to 
 connect it with his past experiences. A few even- 
 29 
 
ings ago I was urging my boy of ten to give more 
 attention to his language lessons. He looked at 
 me with an air of disgust and asked, "What is the 
 use of language lessons, you never hear anything 
 of them in business." To him it was an isolated 
 subject, neither connected with his past experi- 
 ences nor in his mind with anything in the future 
 that could have any interest for him. Under such 
 circumstances labor spent on its study was spent 
 without hope of reward. This is abhorrent to the 
 average mind. Take your pupils into your confi- 
 dence, make them to see the object you wish to at- 
 tain and if not apparent, the value to them of at- 
 taining that object, and you will have more willing 
 pupils because more interested pupils. Here, too, 
 is a point for the teacher of commercial law. The 
 pupils you have are always without the business 
 experience. They know in a general way that a 
 knowledge of law will be valuable to them, but as 
 to the value of an individual proposition of law 
 they are not so clear. The application therefore 
 of each principle must be made clear. You state 
 to a boy a bare principle or rule of law. If out of 
 whatever experience he may have, he cannot clothe 
 that principle in the necessary setting of facts to 
 make it a living, practical case, it will mean nothing 
 30 
 
to him but a jumble of words. You have not con- 
 nected it with his past experiences, and it can have 
 . no interest for him. Studying law in that manner 
 becomes merely a memory exercise much as history 
 was in most cases when you yourselves were in 
 school. 
 
 So far as interest goes, the ideal time for the 
 study of any subject is when the pupil from his 
 own experiences has seen the necessity for it. As 
 in most cases that time comes too late in life it 
 remains for the teacher to supply the connecting 
 links that will make the subject interesting. 
 
 What now are a few deductions we can make 
 from the above observations. 
 
 First. That spelling should be an exercise of 
 both eye and ear and if to that you can make use 
 of the muscular sense it is all the better. That in 
 presenting the words for study they should not 
 be mutilated but should be presented just as they 
 would appear in the printed page. 
 
 Second. That in bookkeeping it is not sufficient 
 that a pupil knows how but he must know how to 
 do accurately and quickly. The pupil should be 
 disciplined in school in the handling of quantity 
 as well as quality. That in commercial law the 
 subject should be presented inductively as nearly 
 31 
 
as possible, for in business law is always presented 
 in that way and it would seem to be a safe general 
 rule to present a subject in school exactly as it will 
 be presented in life. 
 
 That in English, while it is generally conceded 
 that a knowledge of technical grammar does not 
 necessarily lead to a correct use of language, yet 
 such a knowledge seems to be a necessary basis. 
 That true interest can only be aroused in the pupil 
 by showing him through written exercises where 
 and how a knowledge of language will be useful to 
 him and second, that this same written work is 
 the best instrument that is available for giving him 
 the necessarv skill. 
 
 32 
 
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